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What is the difference between Go's type assertion and type conversion for type checking and conversion in Go?

Go's type assertion and type conversion are similar in that they both involve manipulating types. However, they are used for different purposes:

  • Type assertion is used to check whether an interface value can be asserted to a specific type and obtain its underlying value of that type. The syntax for type assertion is **x.(T)**, where **x** is the interface value and **T** is the type being asserted to. If **x** does not contain a value of type **T**, a run-time panic occurs.
  • Type conversion, on the other hand, is used to convert a value from one type to another. The syntax for type conversion is **T(x)**, where **x** is the value being converted and **T** is the target type. If the conversion is not valid, a compile-time error occurs.

In summary, type assertion is used to obtain the underlying value of an interface, while type conversion is used to convert values between different types.

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